“Now You’ll Think I’m Awful”

“Now You’ll Think I’m Awful”

Sue Rhodes came to Scone in early spring in 1966 to interview Betty Shepherd. Sue was a reporter with the ‘Sydney Mirror’ and an ardent avant-garde feminist well before her time. Betty was also a pioneer in the male dominated world of thoroughbred racing. She was reputedly the very first licensed female trainer in Australia; hence Sue Rhodes’ avid interest.

Betty was preparing her stable star ‘Trevors’ for a long range assault on the rich Melbourne Spring Carnival of 1966. ‘Trevors’ had already delivered for Betty when he won the Group III Chelmsford Stakes at Randwick in the autumn. The horse was ready and the time was right. Sue Rhodes picked up on the theme. Sue’s striking good lucks, uber-confidence and gale-force personality kicked up a storm of a different kind in conservative Scone. It was clear Sue was ‘going places’; and she did! Betty and Sue hit it off well. Betty’s spouse Archie was most impressed! He was an SP bookmaker. Sue Rhodes was an ‘unbackable’ short priced favourite on every chart.

Her outrageous book about sex & the Australian girl ‘Now You’ll Think I’m Awful’ caused a national storm in the late 1960s. First published in 1967 it was most unflattering to the Aussie male. My old boss Murray Bain reflected: ‘She must have dated some very crummy Australian males’! He thought he could have done very much better! Sue’s main complaint was the lack of romance and refined technique in love making. In the more prosaic testosterone-driven world of the thoroughbred mating game she might have come to the wrong place at Scone? The manager of Woodlands Stud countered to Murray with: ‘She doesn’t say what sort of servers we are Doc’. The book was front page headlines in the Sunday Papers. I think I’ll leave it at that!

It was no surprise when Sue Rhodes married an American: Hollywood idol and icon Rory Colhoun. They produced a daughter also named Rory; just like her Dad.